MLB probing Astros back to ’17, ‘firm’ discipline possible
Major League Baseball has widened its investigation of alleged sign stealing by the Houston Astros and will probe activity by the team over the past three seasons.
After the conclusion of owners meetings Thursday, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said MLB will “investigate the Astros situation as thoroughly as humanly possible.” The probe includes the team’s firing of an assistant general manager during the World Series for clubhouse comments directed at female reporters, behavior the club at first accused Sports Illustrated of fabricating.
“That investigation is going to encompass not only what we know about ‘17, but also ‘18 and ‘19,” Manfred said. “To the extent we are talking to people all over the industry, former employees, competitors, whatever. To the extent that we find other leads, we’re going to follow these leads.”
Manfred has said for now the Astros are the only team being investigated for cheating allegations. BASEBALL OWNERS APPROVE JOHNSON AS GIANTS’ CONTROL PERSON >> Greg Johnson was approved by the major league clubs as the new controlling owner of the San Francisco Giants.
Following the decision Thursday at the owners meetings in Arlington, Texas, Giants president and CEO Larry Baer still will represent the club at the meetings, along with Johnson and Rob Dean, who had been handling leadership duties since March. Baer was suspended without pay from March 4 through July 1 after a video showed him in a physical altercation with his wife.
Johnson is the son of Charles Johnson, part of the group including late managing partner Peter Magowan that bought the Giants in 1993 and kept them from relocating to Florida. Greg Johnson will be chairman and Dean the vice chairman, and both will be managing members, the team said in a statement.
NFL
GARRETT’S SUSPENSION FOR HELMET ATTACK UPHELD AFTER APPEAL >> Myles Garrett’s indefinite suspension for smashing Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph over the head with a helmet was upheld Thursday by an appeals officer who decided the severe penalty on the Cleveland Browns star defensive end is fair.
One of the league’s most dominant edge rushers, Garrett is banned for the final six regular-season games and playoffs — if Cleveland qualifies — for pulling off Rudolph’s helmet and cracking him with it in the closing seconds of the Browns’ 21-7 win over their AFC North rival last week.
Rudolph is denying an anonymous report alleging he used a racial slur shortly before the confrontation.
College
OHIO STATE VOWS ‘MONETARY RESOLUTION’ FOR DOCTOR’S VICTIMS >> Ohio State University is committed to a “monetary resolution” for men sexually abused decades ago by team doctor Richard Strauss, school leaders said Thursday, though no settlement has been reached in lawsuits alleging school officials ignored complaints and failed to stop him.
The university has acknowledged its failure to prevent and investigate the abuse and has repeatedly apologized publicly. But prior to comments Thursday by the chairman of the board of trustees, it hadn’t made any commitments to compensation for those abused by the now-dead physician.
Golf
WEBB SIMPSON SHOOTS 7-UNDER 65 TO LEAD RSM CLASSIC >> Webb Simpson birdied seven of his last 10 holes at the Plantation Course for a 7-under 65 and the first-round lead in the RSM Classic, the final PGA Tour event of the year.
The top-ranked player in the field at No. 12, Simpson is coming off a six-week break since tying for seventh in Las Vegas. He began the birdie run on the par-5 18th and played the front nine in 6-under 30 with birdies on Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9.
Three players were 6 under. Cameron Tringale and Kyoung-Hoon Lee shot 64 on Sea Island’s Seaside Course, and Rhein Gibson had a 66 on the Plantation layout.
KIM BUILDS 2-SHOT LEAD IN LPGA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP >> Sei Young Kim made a 12foot eagle putt on the 17th hole to pull away from the pack with a 7-under 65 for a two-shot lead Thursday after the opening round of the season-ending CME Globe Tour Championship.
At stake is the richest prize ever in women’s golf, with $1.5 million going to the winner, regardless of her position in the Race to CME Globe standings.
Kim, already a two-time winner on the LPGA this year, was bogey-free on a pleasant, breezy Tiburon Golf Club.
Snowboarding
SNOWBOARD PIONEER JAKE BURTON CARPENTER DIES AT 65 >> Jake Burton Carpenter, the pioneer who brought snowboarding to the masses and helped turn the sport into a billion-dollar business and Olympic showpiece, has died at 65.
Carpenter quit his job in New York in 1977 to form the company now known simply as Burton. His goal was to advance the rudimentary snowboard, then called a “Snurfer,” which had been invented by Sherman Poppen a dozen years earlier.
It worked, and more than four decades later, snowboarding is a major fixture at the Winter Games and snowboards are as common as skis at resorts across the globe.